Review: The World Beyond Your Head

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Cover image of "The World Beyond your Head" by Matthew B. Crawford

The World Beyond Your Head

The World Beyond Your Head, Matthew B. Crawford. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (ISBN: 9780374535919) 2016.

Summary: Argues that becoming an individual involves engaging with real physical environments and shared human practices.

Crawford, like many others, writes in this book of how we live distracted lives. However, he argues that the fault lies not in our screens but in ourselves. In particular, his contention that the rise of the autonomous self has made us vulnerable to distraction. The idea that we live “inside our heads” makes us vulnerable to all kinds of consumerist ploys, intensified through our digital economy. He offers one of the most chilling portrayals of this in how gambling has sought to be so frictionless that people will spend hours at a machine, urinating and defecating themselves rather than break away. He observes the irony that our quest for autonomy in the end results in a “mass solipsism” of “autistic monads.” We lose any real individuality.

Crawford believes to be human is to truly engage with our physical environment as well as other beings. He offers the examples of how the stick of a hockey player becomes an extension of one’s body, how the motorcycle an extension of the rider. He reminds us that the Latin root of “education” means “to lead out.” We are led out of our heads when we give focused attention to any skilled practice. Crawford offers examples of glass-blowing, learning Russian, playing music together with others. Drawing on Michael Polanyi, he observes the personal aspect of any form of true knowing, the relationship between knower and the object known.

Real individuality emerges in communities of practice in which we both perfect a skill and use it in a social context. Crawford uses his own trade as a motorcycle mechanic, showing how skilled work is recognized in the acceptance and payment of a labor bill. Likewise, real human relationships constantly bring us up against those not like us. This is so even in marriage. Knowing and bonding involves the practice of attention, the skill of negotiating those differences. Digital relationships seem easier, and more frictionless. And yet all this leads to boredom and the flattening of self.

Throughout, Crawford has held up the idea of skilled and embodied communities of practice. The final part of his book consists of just one chapter, “The Organ Makers Shop.” He introduces us to the pipe organ makers George Taylor and John Boody. He explores the lineage of organ-making from which they’ve come, the apprenticeships each underwent. The account walks through the renaissance in mechanical organs and the physicality of the workshop. For example, we learn how leather is a superior material for bellows rather than space age materials. Then there is the fine art of voicing organ pipes.

What most struck me in this account is how employees became master craftsmen. John Boody was asked out motivating employees to care about quality:

“They are absolutely the most vicious and greatest proponents of that,” he said. “The way to get people most disturbed here is to give them any sense that you are trying to cheapen things, or push them ahead. You think when you start out something like this that the hardest thing is going to be to teach people to care and value that aesthetic. But it happens, and you cannot convince them to do less.”

Behind the stories, there is some denser philosophy. By arguing that we need to get out of our heads, Crawford is not arguing that we stop thinking and just do. Rather, he invites us to use our minds to understand the ideas and practices that have misled and distracted us. Likewise, skillful work of any kind is mindful, attentive. But somehow, it must take us into the world of things and people.

The book led me to reflect on my own practice of reviewing. Reading books and writing about them can be a pretty “in your head” sort of thing. But I’m approaching the ten thousand hours of developing a skilled practice. I’ve written something like three thousand reviews. I’ve studied other reviewers. There is copyright law to observe. One needs to understand the vagaries of each platform. Then there is the back end technologies of websites, SEO, and more that go into every post. I also relate to a network of authors, publicists, publishing houses, booksellers, and devoted readers. My “hardware” includes reading glasses, pencils, computers, tablets, and smartphones.

And here I’d like to press Crawford. His examples focus on embodied practices, which I would certainly honor. But I think there is also skillful work one does as a “knowledge worker.” Crawford is his own best example of this. No doubt, doing other things besides “knowledge work” is good. My life has been enriched by everything from choral singing to painting, to maintaining and repairing my seventeen year old mower.

But the skillful practice of reviewing has changed me from simply being a reader to one who cares about what makes books good, who appreciates the labors of authors and wants to protect that from the intrusion and theft of AI. It has made me passionate about intellectual freedom and free speech and a free press. In sum, it has made me more fully who I am, even into my seventies. In Crawford’s terms, I think this is what it means to become an individual.

The Weekly Wrap: September 6-12

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The Weekly Wrap: September 6-12

September 11 Twenty-Five Years Later

It was a day I remembered in minute detail. I was in Cleveland for the funeral of a friend. Driving up the evening before, I stayed with friends who I would see later that day. I was meeting another friend for coffee around 9 am that morning. Like so many others throughout the country, I remarked how clear the azure blue sky was that morning. On my drive to the coffee shop, I was listening to NPR when the reports came, first of one plane strike, then another, then the Pentagon.

There was a TV on at the coffee shop, and we sat riveted as the tragedy unfolded. Images I will never be able to unsee. When I could, I called my wife, as did so many around the country. At the funeral, I remarked to the friends I’d stayed with how much our world had changed in the few hours since I’d seen them.

I remember the tremendous sense of unity we experienced for a short time. And how it seemed so quickly to unravel and has continued to do so down to the present.

If we are basically good, as so many believe, why are we so cussedly fractious? While not as immediate as the 9/11 attacks, we face threats far more ominous. A massive surveillance society, which we can trace, at least in parts to those attacks. The existential threat of a planet becoming increasingly uninhabitable. And this week, the news from AI developers that AI could have the capability in the next few years to exterminate humanity. Yet we go along blithely banning books and specifying what teachers cannot say. Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

I’d love to see us unite to meet the existential threats facing us. But the experience of our response to a deadly global pandemic doesn’t encourage me. Which leaves me hoping for the Deus ex machina of ancient theatre. Or the second coming of Jesus. Personally, I’m coming to believe that if God doesn’t save us, we’re toast.

Five Articles Worth Reading

We often think of evil in personal rather than systemic terms. Jennifer Szalai reviews a new book by philosopher Susan Neiman that argues the contrary in “This Philosopher Thinks It’s Time We Call Out Evil in Our World.”

Another of those big issues, indeed the final one, is death. Emma Cline’s new book Switzy explores the last days of a former executive with Alzheimer’s who has arranged his death in a right-to-die country. Hillary Kelly reviews the book in “The Novel That Looks Death in the Eye.”

I have always considered That Hideous Strength the most prescient of the fiction of C. S. Lewis. Annie Crawford discusses what we learn about living as people of faith and hope in our chaotic tech world in “From Babel to Belonging: C. S. Lewis’s Fairy-Tale Cure for the Modern Machine.”

Then, on a different “note,” Alan Jacobs writes about the distinctive interpretations of Bach by Canadian pianist Glenn Gould in “Hearing Gould.” The one thing I missed in this article was any discussion of Gould’s vocalizations, certainly one of the most distinctive things you hear on his recordings.

Finally, Odyssey has awakened interest in Homer’s works, the other of which is Iliad. Open Culture has images of one of the best manuscripts of Iliad that you can magnify in “One of the Best Preserved Ancient Manuscripts of The Iliad Is Now Digitized: See the “Bankes Homer” Manuscript in High Resolution (Circa 150 C.E.).” The only hitch? You need to be able to read Greek.

Quote of the Week

This quote by James McBride, born on September 11, 1957, speaks to my comments above.

“The things that hold us together are much stronger than the things that drive us apart.”

Sadly, I think we are often lacking the sense to see the things that hold us together.

Miscellaneous Musings

I often have books I am looking for when I visit our “big box” retail store. I’ve found it frustrating that often books are not arranged in any order that I can discern. But it has given me the chance to get to know some very helpful booksellers! Although on a recent visit, it turned out that a recently published work advertised in an email was not in stock! No wonder I couldn’t find it.

I’m delighted with the boom of new indie bookstores around Central Ohio. And this listing is already out of date. Last week, The Whispering Page opened in Worthington, Ohio, just down the street from Celestielle Books. I understand readers can pick up a “passport” for all of these stores at any of them. I love it!

I’ve finally waded into George Marsden’s magisterial biography of Jonathan Edwards, perhaps America’s most brilliant theologian. It was the winner of the 2003 Bancroft Prize. So you can see it has taken me awhile to get around to it. A great, but long read.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Matthew B. Crawford, The World Beyond Your Head

Tuesday: Tracey Rowland, Introducing Coimmunio Theology

Wednesday: Jacqulyne Horbrook, How to Be a Christian Influencer

Thursday: Mitali Perkins, Doing Something New

Friday: Terry Pratchett, Eric

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for September 6-12.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

Review: Nolan

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Cover image of "Nolan" by Tim Brown

Nolan

Nolan: The Singular Life of an American Original, Tim Brown. Grand Central Publishing (ISBN: 9781538726549) 2026.

Summary: A biography of Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan focusing on his career and the values that formed his approach to pitching and life.

“There was an athlete once, a pitcher, a ballplayer, who took the baseball every four or five days and set out to throw a no-hitter. Every time. To give up nothing. To give away nothing. To strike out everybody. To win every pitch, every inning, every game, until there were twenty-seven outs, and they turned out the lights and everybody went home. He threw harder than anybody else, and did that not for a year or five or ten, but for nearly three decades” (p. xvii).

That pitcher was Nolan Ryan. And Tim Brown’s description of Ryan in his Prologue captures the essence of what he will elaborate in this new biography of the Hall of Fame pitcher. He won 324 games, and probably would have won far more had he not played for low scoring teams. He pitched seven no hitters, his last at age 42, still capable of throwing 96 miles per hour fastballs. Not only that, he struck out sixteen players. No other pitcher has more than four. Over his career, he struck out 5714. The two active pitchers closest to him are more than 2,000 shy of that number.

Brown begins with his childhood in Alvin, Texas. It’s the place that formed his work ethic, his teamwork and family values.It is where he met Ruth in eighth grade. In many ways Nolan Ryan is the quintessential Texan. Even today, he and Ruth own a huge livestock ranch near Alvin. Then, it is also where a Mets scout “Red” Murff discovered Ryan, a “skinny high school junior with the best arm I have ever seen in my life.” Two and a half-years later, he would be pitching alongside Tom Seaver. Seaver’s discipline impressed the young man with so much raw talent. Ryan would help the Mets win the World Series. It would be the only one in which he would compete.

Brown traces his career with the Angels, Astros, and Texas Rangers. While with the Angels, Tom Morgan, a pitching coach, worked with him on his delivery. Radar measurements were inexact, and measured differently than today. So by today’s standards, he may have thrown as fast as 108 miles per hour in his youth. No wonder they called it “The Express.” Then he moved back to Texas, first with the Astros, not far from his home, Finally, he gave a lift to the struggling Rangers in the concluding years of his career.

One chapter of the book is devoted to Ryan’s no-hitters, the first in 1973, the last in 1991. Each game is summarized. Another chapter is devoted to the “bow-tie,” the times Ryan hit batters. It exposes what a fierce competitor, determined to absolutely dominate hitters. There are recollections of a different, more generous Ryan, in the clubhouse, including the son of a long-time batting coach, Sid Holland.

Brown takes us through the struggles of his last year, when age finally caught up with Ryan, and the game with Seattle when an elbow ligament finally gave out. Characteristic of the man, he simply walked off the mound, said “I’m done,” and didn’t pitch again. Brown wonders whether we will see the likes of him in our “pitch counts” approach to pitching where it is rare for a starter to pitch a complete game.

The last chapters turn to his life after baseball. He did serve as president of the Rangers, setting them on a competitive path, until rivals pushed him out.. But much of his life was on his ranch, with Ruth, and his family. Meanwhile, Alvin would forever show the marks of the town where Nolan Ryan grew up.

I enjoyed the way Brown mixes accounts of his career with insights into Ryan as a person. Nolan Ryan was far more than a gifted pitcher. Brown explores the inner dynamics that contributed to such incredible staying power at such a high level. I wonder with Brown if we will see the likes of him again

Review: The Labors of Hercules

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Cover image of "The Labors of Hercules" by Agatha Christie

The Labors of Hercules

The Labors of Hercules (Poirot, 26), Agatha Christie. Wm. Morrow Paperbacks (ISBN: 9780061746383) 2006, first published 1947.

Summary: As Poirot approaches retirement, he solves twelve cases that parallel the “labors” of his namesake, Hercules.

One evening, an old friend drops by for a social visit. In the course of conversation, the subject of Poirot’s Christian name comes up, one actually derived from Greek mythology. Later, they discuss his approaching retirement and how he might conclude his career, joking about “the twelve labours of Hercules.” After his guest departs, Poirot ponders this aside and determines that he will indeed take on twelve cases that mimic the twelve labors of Hercules. And so the remainder of the book chronicles Poirot moving from and solving them one by one.

The Nemean Lion. In this case, the “lion” is a kidnapped Pekingese dog who is a “veritable lion.” Several Pekingese have been kidnapped from their owners and returned unharmed for a ransom.

The Lernaean Hydra. Letters claiming Dr. Oldfield poisoned his wife are like a “many headed hydra” and destroying the innocent doctor’s practice. But when the body is exhumed, she has indeed been poisoned with arsenic!

The Arcadian Deer. A car breakdown results in meeting a mechanic reminding Poirot of an Arcadian shepherd. The mechanic recognizes Poirot and asks his help to find Nita, a maid to a famous dancer he’d briefly met and fell in love with. She is Poirot’s Arcadian deer.

The Erymanthian Boar. Enroute to a remote lodge, Poirot receives a note from Lementeuil, the Swiss Commissaire of Police, who has recognized him. As it turns out, Marrascaud, who Lementeuil describes as a “wild boar” is going to the same lodge. Marrascaud is a gangster connected to many killings. But Poirot, eager to help, struggles to identify him from among the guests.

The Augean Stables. So, Poirot is back in England, called on the new prime minister to deal with scurrilous rumors about his wife. He devises a clever solution to clean out the “Augean Stables” of rumors.

The Stymphalean Birds. Harold Waring, a British undersecretary is on holiday when two Polish women, reminiscent of birds in their appearance, blackmail him. These are the “Stymphalean Birds” However, Poirot discovers they are not the real blackmailers.

The Cretan Bull. Diana Maberly is engaged to a Hugh Chandler, a promising officer and a “bull of a young man.” But after he breaks off the engagement, claiming he is going insane. Diana asks Poirot to investigate.

The Horses of Diomedes. A doctor seeks Poirot’s help with a young girl, Sheila Grant who is developing a cocaine addiction. Poirot likens drug purveyors to the horses of Diomedes, who feed on human flesh. But as in many cases, things are not what they seem.

The Girdle of Hippolyta. An art owner asks Poirot to investigate the theft of a Rubens painting, The Girdle of Hippolyta. However, another case of a missing schoolgirl interests him more. Subsequently, we discover there is a connection between the two cases.

The Flock of Geryon. The Pekingese kidnapper of The Nemean Lion turns over a new leaf by offering to help Poirot expose a religious huckster (“Geryon”) connected with the deaths of three wealthy women. But her undercover work in the cult puts her own life at risk.

The Apples of the Hesperides. The apples here are on a goblet an art collector bought at auction. But thieves stole the goblin before he received it. He asks Poirot to track it down, a journey that will take him to a remote convent.

The Capture of Cerberus. Cerberus is Dou-Dou, the guard dog at a popular night club run by Poirot’s old friend, Madame Rossakoff. He learns of a drug ring operating out of the club, of an impending raid, and helps Inspector Japp to find who is behind it.

What a novel way to present twelve Poirot short stories and tie them all together. Each one is about the length of what one might read at a sitting. Instead of long, twisty plots, we have short ones with a few twists and a quick denouement. And then Poirot matches his namesake and can retire with honor!

Review: The Light of Faith and Reason

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Cover image of "The Light of Faith and Reason" by Gerhard Lohfink

The Light of Faith and Reason

The Light of Faith and Reason, Gerhard Lohfink, translated by Linda M. Maloney. Liturgical Press (ISBN: 9798400801143) 2026.

Summary: The Enlightenment did not begin in the seventeenth century but in the Old Testament and deepened by Jesus.

Gerhard Lohfink, the Catholic New Testament scholar at Tubingen, passed away in 2024. This work, based on lectures Lohfink gave was first published in German in 2016. Now, thanks to the work of his longtime translator, Linda M. Maloney, we have this valedictory collection in English. The theme tying this lecture material together is that the Enlightenment did not begin in the seventeenth century. Rather, it originated in Greece and in the story of Israel. Then Jesus and the church deepen this story of enlightenment. The first ten chapters elaborate this contention while the last eight address a number of subjects, showing faith and reason working together.

He begins by asking, “Is the Church Required to Undergo Enlightenment.” He traces the idea of freedom back to the exodus story of liberation. A new social order characterized by equality originates at Sinai. As for human dignity, its roots go back to the imago dei of Genesis 1. He then shows how what we consider modern formulations of human rights may be found in late Spanish scholasticism, that these indeed laid the basis for what we call the Enlightenment.

He goes on to show how replacing the pantheon of deities with a single Creator opened up a true love for and engagement with creation. As creatures we live both as those “who are dust” and as those for whom the world was created. Then he considers the election of Israel, and how this was for the nations. But what do they see? Nor a perfect nation, but a defeated one who becomes The Servant of Isaiah 52:13-53:12. He goes on to show how the knowledge of God revealed in Exodus 1-15 create a liberating social structure. He then offers a fascinating chapter that builds on this with working out how the Trinity challenge imperil monotheism.

Lohfink explores how Jesus deepened the enlightenment and how the early church grasped that. He cites their commitment to nonviolence and community. Also, expecting Christ’s imminent return, they lived out the imminent kingdom as something for “today.” Finally, chapters 9 and 10, the concluding chapters of his argument show how the resurrection both fulfills and transforms everything.

The last eight chapters do not seem to hang together as a continuation of the argument. But they sparkle with insights nevertheless. Chapter 11 on “How Paul Talks to His Communities” notes the richness of his imagery, his memorability, clarity, arguments, and his stress on creating community. He offers a reading of Romans 9-11 that argues that Paul is not anti-Jewish. He synthesizes New Testament teaching on how the church gathers, how it resolves conflict, and does mission. And he notes how important a house-based ministry was.

Lohfink offers a long chapter on the New Testament basis of the priestly office, instructive for this non-Catholic to understand how Catholics root the priesthood in the New Testament. He also addresses Marian devotion, arguing the case for the church’s doctrine yet understanding that Mary is one of us, not our mediator but our dear mother with whom we stand before God. Then he concludes the collection with a discussion of the judgment of Matthew 25 regarding the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner.

What Lohfink does first of all is argue how the reasonable faith we’ve embraced has all that the enlightenment proclaimed on a firmer basis, rooted in the Triune God. Second, he shows in the genius of the early church’s life the practical manifestation of that light in the ways the ordered their life and mission. Rather than accept a narrative that we hear in most western civilization courses that the Enlightenment supplied what the church lacked, he shows that it couldn’t happen apart from the church. I also appreciated the tone throughout. We do not have the polemics of a culture warrior but the patient instruction of a teacher and pastor, bringing out the treasures of insight we find in scripture. This publication is truly a parting gift.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Sermon on the Mount

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Cover image of "Sermon on the Mount" by Clarence Jordan

Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount, Clarence Jordan. Wipf & Stock (ISBN: 9798385269792) 2026, first published 1970.

Summary: A Bible commentary combining textual exposition, Southern storytelling, and challenging application.

“They were young, and life pressed in on their hearts like steam in an unpopped kernal of popcorn just before it explodes. They wanted action, adventure, achievement, happiness. To be sure, they lived nearly two thousand years ago, but that does not alter the fact that they desired to make their lives count significantly.”

So opens Clarence Jordan’s commentary on the Sermon on the Mount. We recognize at once the Southern storyteller of The Cotton Patch Gospel. At the same time, we find careful study of the biblical text, and the trenchant insights and applicatory challenges people encountered when they listened to Jordan. At the outset, Jordan makes clear we cannot have Jesus without the sermon, nor the sermon without Jesus.

He begins with two chapters on the Beatitudes, which he describes as a “Stairway to Spiritual Life.” Through all, the kingdom is the blessing, and each beatitude another step. We begin with being deeply concerned with our spiritual poverty, a concern that gives way to mourning. Then we meekly surrender to God’s will. We then hunger for a righteousness that is more than the praise of people. Nourished by God, we show mercy by sharing what we have with others. The truly righteous and merciful recognize that there is no room for insincerity in our hearts as people longing to see God. Finally, the blessed share in God’s purpose of making peace in the world.

Jordan then turns to “The Effect of the Christian Community on the World” (Matthew 5: 10-16). Basically, he contends that if Jesus has set us alight, has made us salty, we can’t hide it. We are witnesses, together comprising a holy city on a hill.

The next three chapters cover Matthew 5:17-48 under the theme “Things Old and New.” Jordan observes God’s intent that we love him whole heartedly, how the teachers had turned the law into cold formalism, and how Jesus calls out whole hearted love. He does so in his demanding challenge to sexual purity, his uncompromising stance on divorce, and the simplicity of saying ‘yes” or “no.” He observes the murderous character of anger. Rather than agreeing with adversaries, Jordan translates the verse as “be agreeable.” He tells a fascination story of invaders taking a town, only to find no one is resisting them. Finally, instead of retaliation, we let ourselves be imposed upon and we love enemies as well as friends. And so is love perfected in the disciple.

The following two chapters on fasting, alms, and prayers in Matthew 6:1-18 concern “Testing Our Motives.” Again, the motives are absolute loyalty and sincerity toward God. The teaching on prayer makes this clear both in how we pray and what we pray.

The rest of the sermon is covered in four chapters. “The Measure of a Treasure” addresses what we count as treasure. Here, Jordan also speaks about how God’s provision is enough that through our generosity, there need be none who are needy. “The Danger of Self-Righteous Judging” (Matthew 7:1-6,15) distinguishes between truth-telling and censorious judgments, which he portrays humorously as “old Plank-Eye himself.” Jordan portrays the dynamic of “Power Through Faith and Discipline” in Matthew 7:7-14 as the disciple who keeps asking, seeking, knocking, and who persists in the narrow way. Finally, “Clear Call to Christian Action” (Matthew 7:24-27) warns of how we set up substitute kingdoms that sidestep hearing and doing what Jesus says.

Jordan is both plain-spoken and concise in his study. While many have written much longer books (this comes in at 95 pages), I don’t think any have written with either greater clarity about the meaning of the sermon. Nor have any written with any more pointed challenges. Yet all this comes across as almost conversational. But for all that, Jordan makes it clear this is a sermon for disciples of Jesus to live.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.